Sonnets

of

World War I

Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)

Although Rupert Brooke's 1914 sonnets received an enthusiastic reception at the time of their publication and the author's death (of blood poisoning), disenchantment with the ever-lengthening war meant a backlash against Brooke's work. These sonnets have been lauded as being "among the supreme expressions of English patriotism and among the few notable poems produced by the Great War" (Houston Peterson), while according to Patrick Cruttwell, "I suspect that these unfortunate poems, through their great vogue at first and the bitter reaction against them later, did more than anything else to put the traditional sonnet virtually out of action for a generation or more of vital poetry in English." But, as you can see here, some writers of the period adapted the sonnet to their war experience, and it is interesting to speculate on whether Brooke's writing would have become as bitter and disillusioned as that of his contemporaries had he lived a few years more. See Harry Rusche's Rupert Brooke page, part of his Lost Poets of the Great War.

Charles Sorley (1895-1915)

Sorley was born in Scotland and, after leaving school, spent six months in Germany during 1914. He was almost trapped there by the war and enlisted at once upon his return. He went to France in May of 1915 and was killed by a sniper the following October. The sonnet beginning "When you see millions of the mouthless dead" is probably the last poem he wrote.

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

Binyon was Keeper of Oriental Paintings and Prints at the British Museum and was Professor of Poetry at Harvard for a year. During the war he worked in a Red Cross unit at the front in France.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

Other Poets

Robert Bridges (1840-1930) was appointed English Poet Laureate in 1913 and wrote a number of "official" wartime verses (To the United States of America). Henry Christopher Bradby (1868-1947) was an English school teacher (April 1918). Edgell Rickword (1898-1982) lost an eye in the war and was released from duty. After the war, he published three volumes of poetry as well as literary criticism and political journalism (War and Peace). May Herschel-Clarke published one volume of poems in 1917, containing The Mother, written in response to Rupert Brooke's The Soldier. Edward Shillito (1872-1948) was a Free Church minister; his blank verse sonnet Hardness of Heart is included here. Wilfrid Wilson Gibson (1878-1962), a friend of Rupert Brooke, tried to dissuade him from enlisting (The Conscript). Eva Dobell (1867-1963) worked as a nurse during the war (Advent, 1916). Geoffrey Faber (1889-1961), the famous publisher, despite the title of this selection, served in France and Belgium (Home Service). Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) was wounded at the Somme; he showed signs of mental instability before the war and after the war was institutionalized (To England--A Note). Also included are some American sonnets from the 1917 volume War Poems By X. The sonnets of John Allan Wyeth can be found at Trenches on the Web.

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